French Section of the Workers' International

French Section of the Workers' International Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière

Leader	Jean Jaurès Guy Mollet
Founders	Jules Guesde Jean Jaurès
Founded	25 April 1905; 118 years ago (1905-04-25)
Dissolved	4 May 1969; 54 years ago (1969-05-04)
Merger of	French Socialist Party Socialist Party of France
Merged into	Socialist Party
Headquarters	Paris
Newspaper	Le Populaire (from 1918) L'Humanité (until 1920)
Trade union	Workers' Force
Ideology	Socialism^[1]^[2] Democratic socialism^[3] Social democracy^[4]^[5] Communism^[6]
Political position	Left-wing^[7]
National affiliation	Lefts Cartel (1924–1934) Popular Front (1936–1938) Tripartisme (1944–1947) Third Force (1947–1958)
International affiliation	Second International (1905–1916) Labour and Socialist International (1923–1940) Socialist International (1951–1969)
European Parliament group	Socialist Group
Colours	Red
Politics of France Political parties Elections

The French Section of the Workers' International (French: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded during the 1905 Globe Congress in Paris as a merger between the French Socialist Party and the Socialist Party of France in order to create the French section of the Second International, designated as the party of the workers' movement.

The SFIO was led by Jules Guesde, Jean Jaurès (who quickly became its most influential figure), Édouard Vaillant and Paul Lafargue (Karl Marx's son in law), and united the Marxist tendency represented by Guesde with the social-democratic tendency represented by Jaurès. The SFIO opposed itself to colonialism and to militarism, although the party abandoned its anti-militarist views and supported the national union government (French: Union nationale) facing Germany's declaration of war on France in World War I, having replaced internationalist class struggle with patriotism like the whole Second International.

Because of conflicting views towards the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik-led Communist International, the SFIO split into two groups during the 1920 Tours Congress as the majority created the French Section of the Communist International which joined the Communist International and became the French Communist Party while the minority continued as the SFIO.

Between 1909 and 1920, the SFIO produced L'Humanité. Its national affiliations included the Lefts Cartel (1924–1934), the Popular Front (1936–1938), the Tripartisme (1944–1947) and the Third Force (1947–1958). Internationally, the party was first affiliated to the Second International (1905–1916), then to the Labour and Socialist International (1923–1940)^[8] and finally to the Socialist International (1951–1969). The SFIO's symbol was a red and black circle with the Three Arrows.^{[citation needed]}

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Hi, my name is John Green, this is Crash Course World History and today we’re going to talk about The French Revolution. Admittedly, this wasn’t the French flag until 1794, but we just felt like he looked good in stripes. [vertical = slimming] As does this guy. Huh? So, while the American Revolution is considered a pretty good thing, the French Revolution is often seen as a bloody, anarchic mess—which— Mr. Green, Mr. Green! I bet, like always, it’s way more complicated than that. Actually no. It was pretty terrible. Also, like a lot of revolutions, in the end it exchanged an authoritarian regime for an authoritarian regime. But even if the revolution was a mess, its ideas changed human history— far more, I will argue, than the American Revolution. [Intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] Right, so France in the 18th century was a rich and populous country, but it had a systemic problem collecting taxes because of the way its society was structured. They had a system with kings and nobles we now call the ancien regime. Thank you, three years of high school French. [and Meredith the Interness] And for most French people, it sucked, [historical term] because the people with the money— the nobles and the clergy— never paid taxes. So by 1789, France was deeply in debt thanks to their funding the American Revolution— thank you, France, [also for Goddard and The Coneheads] we will get you back in World Wars I and II. And King Louis XVI was spending half of his national budget to service the federal debt. Louis tried to reform this system under various finance ministers. He even called for democracy on a local level, but all attempts to fix it failed and soon France basically declared bankruptcy. This nicely coincided with hailstorms that ruined a year’s harvest, [ah, hail] thereby raising food prices and causing widespread hunger, which really made the people of France angry, because they love to eat. Meanwhile, the King certainly did not look broke, as evidenced by his well-fed physique and fancy footwear. He and his wife Marie Antoinette also got to live in the very nice Palace at Versailles thanks to God’s mandate, but Enlightenment thinkers like Kant were challenging the whole idea of religion, writing things like: “The main point of enlightenment is of man’s release from his self-caused immaturity, primarily in matters of religion.” [while smacking folks in face w/ glove] So basically the peasants were hungry, the intellectuals were beginning to wonder whether God could or should save the King, and the nobility were dithering about, eating fois gras and songbirds, [I'd rather eat cake, personally] failing to make meaningful financial reform. In response to the crisis, Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General, the closest thing that France had to a national parliament, which hadn’t met since 1614. The Estates General was like a super parliament made up of representatives from the First Estate, the nobles, the Second Estate, the clergy, and the Third Estate, everyone else. The Third Estate showed up with about 600 representatives, the First and Second Estates both had about 300, and after several votes, everything was deadlocked, and then the Third Estate was like, “You know what? Forget you guys. [expletive deleted] We’re gonna leave and we’re gonna become our own National Assembly.” This did not please King Louis XVI. [everything can't be an eclair, Lou] So when the new National Assembly left the room for a break, he locked the doors, and he was like, "Sorry, guys, you can't go in there. And if you can't assemble, how you gonna be a national assembly?" […and with that, mischief managed!] Shockingly, the Third Estate representatives were able to find a different room in France, [D'oh!] this time an indoor tennis court where they swore the famous Tennis Court Oath. [Like McEnroe? You can't be serious..] And they agreed not to give up until a French constitution was established. So then Louis XVI responded by sending troops to Paris primarily to quell uprisings over food shortages, but the revolutionaries saw this as a provocation, so they responded by seizing the Bastille Prison on July 14th, which, coincidentally, is also Bastille Day. The Bastille was stormed ostensibly to free prisoners— although there were only seven in jail at the time— but mostly to get guns. But the really radical move in the National Assembly came on August 4, when they abolished most of the ancien regime. -- feudal rights, tithes, privileges for nobles, unequal taxation, they were all abolished -- in the name of writing a new constitution. And then, on August 26th, the National Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, which laid out a system of rights that applied to every person, and made those rights integral to the new constitution. That’s quite different from the American bill of rights, which was, like, begrudgingly tacked on at the end and only applied to non-slaves. The DoRoMaC, as I called it in high school, declared that everyone had the right to liberty, property, and security— rights that the French Revolution would do an exceptionally poor job of protecting, but as noted last week, the same can be argued for many other supposedly more successful revolutions. Okay, let’s go to the Thought Bubble. Meanwhile, back at Versailles, Louis XVI was still King of France, and it was looking like France might be a constitutional monarchy. Which might've meant that the royal family could hang on to their awesome house, but then, in October of 1789, a rumor started that Marie Antoinette was hoarding grain somewhere inside the palace. And in what became known as the Women's March, a bunch of armed peasant women stormed the palace and demanded that Louis and Marie Antoinette move from Versailles to Paris. Which they did, because everyone is afraid of armed peasant women. ["hell hath no rath" and all] And this is a nice reminder that to many people at the time, the French Revolution was not primarily about fancy Enlightenment ideas; it was mostly about lack of food and a political system that made economic contractions hardest on the poor. Now, a good argument can be made that this first phase of the revolution wasn’t all that revolutionary. The National Assembly wanted to create a constitutional monarchy; they believed that the king was necessary for a functioning state and they were mainly concerned that the voters and office holders be men of property. Only the most radical wing, the Jacobins, called for the creation of a republic. But things were about to get much more revolutionary— and also worse for France. First, the Jacobins had a huge petition drive that got a bit unruly, which led troops controlled not by the King but by the national assembly to fire on the crowd, killing 50 people. And that meant that the National Assembly, which had been the revolutionary voice of the people, had killed people in an attempt to reign in revolutionary fervor. You see this a lot throughout history during revolutions. What looked like radical hope and change suddenly becomes "The Man" as increasingly radical ideas are embraced. Thanks, Thought Bubble. Meanwhile, France’s monarchical neighbors were getting a little nervous about all this republic business, especially Leopold II, who in addition to being the not holy not roman and not imperial holy roman emperor, was Marie Antoinette’s brother. I should note, by the way, that at this point, the Holy Roman Empire was basically just Austria. Also, like a lot of monarchs, Leopold II liked the idea of monarchies, and he wanted to keep his job as a person who gets to stand around wearing a dress, pointing at nothing, owning winged lion-monkeys made out of gold. [must've been a real partier, that one] And who can blame him? So he and King William Frederick II of Prussia together issued the Declaration of Pilnitz, which promised to restore the French monarchy. At this point, Louis and the National Assembly developed a plan: Let’s invade Austria. [always a solid plan?] The idea was to plunder Austria’s wealth and maybe steal some Austrian grain to shore up French food supplies, and also, you know, spread revolutionary zeal. But what actually happened is that Prussia joined Austria in fighting the French. And then Louis encouraged the Prussians, which made him look like an enemy of the revolution, which, of course, he was. And as a result, the Assembly voted to suspend the monarchy, have new elections in which everyone could vote (as long as they were men), and create a new republican constitution. Soon, this Convention decided to have a trial for Louis XVI, who was found guilty and, by one vote, sentenced to die via guillotine. Which made it difficult for Austria and Prussia to restore him to the throne. Oh, it’s time for the open letter? [musical chairs undefeated champ rolls] An Open Letter to the Guillotine. But first, let’s see what’s in the secret compartment today. Oh, there’s nothing. Oh my gosh, Stan! Jeez. That’s not funny! [That's what Anne Boleyn said…] Dear Guillotine, I can think of no better example of Enlightenment thinking run amok. Dr. Joseph Guillotine, the inventor of the guillotine, envisioned it as an egalitarian way of dying. They said the guillotine was humane and it also made no distinction between rich or poor, noble or peasant. It killed equally. You were also celebrated for taking the torture out of execution. But I will remind you, you did not take the dying out of execution. [or have a self-cleaning function] Unfortunately for you, France hasn’t executed anyone since 1977. But you’ll be happy to know that the last legal execution in France was via guillotine. Plus, you’ve always got a future in horror movies. Best wishes, John Green The death of Louis XVI marks the beginning of The Terror, the best known or at least the most sensational phase of the revolution. I mean, if you can kill the king, you can kill pretty much anyone, which is what the government did under the leadership of the Committee of Public Safety (Motto: We suck at protecting public safety) led by Maximilien Robespierre. The terror saw the guillotining of 16,000 enemies of the revolution including Marie “I never actually said Let them eat cake” Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre himself, who was guillotined in the month of Thermidor in the year Two. Oh, right. So while France was broke and fighting in like nine wars, the Committee of Public Safety changed the measurements of time because, you know, the traditional measurements are so irrational and religion-y. So they renamed all the months and decided that every day would have 10 hours and each hour 100 minutes. And then, after the Terror, the revolution pulled back a bit and another new constitution was put into place, this one giving a lot more power to wealthy people. At this point, France was still at war with Austria and Britain, wars that France ended up winning, largely [lol] thanks to a little corporal named Napoleon Bonaparte. The war was backdrop to a bunch of coups and counter coups that I won’t get into right now because they were very complicated, but the last coup that we’ll talk about, in 1799, established Napoleon Bonaparte as the First Consul of France. And it granted him almost unlimited executive power under yet another constitution. By which he presumably meant that France’s government had gone all the way from here to here to here. As with the American revolution, it’s easy to conclude that France’s revolution wasn’t all that revolutionary. I mean, Napoleon was basically an emperor and, in some ways, he was even more of an absolute monarch than Louis XVI had been. Gradually the nobles came back to France, although they had mostly lost their special privileges. The Catholic Church returned, too, although much weaker because it had lost land and the ability to collect tithes. And when Napoleon himself fell, France restored the monarchy, and except for a four-year period, between 1815 and 1870, France had a king who was either a Bourbon or a Bonaparte. Now, these were no longer absolute monarchs who claimed that their right to rule came from God; they were constitutional monarchs of the kind that the revolutionaries of 1789 had originally envisioned. But the fact remains that France had a king again, and a nobility, and an established religion and it was definitely not a democracy or a republic. And perhaps this is why the French Revolution is so controversial and open to interpretation. Some argue the revolution succeeded in spreading enlightenment ideals even if it didn’t bring democracy to France. Others argue that the real legacy of the Revolution wasn’t the enhancement of liberty, but of state power. Regardless, I’d argue that the French Revolution was ultimately far more revolutionary than its American counterpart. I mean, in some ways, America never had an aristocracy, but in other ways it continued to have one— the French enlightenment thinker, Diderot, felt that Americans should “fear a too unequal division of wealth resulting in a small number of opulent citizens and a multitude of citizens living in misery.” And the American Revolution did nothing to change that polarization of wealth. What made the French Revolution so radical was its insistence on the universality of its ideals. I mean, look at Article 6 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen: “Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes.” Those are radical ideas, that the laws come from citizens, not from kings or gods, and that those laws should apply to everyone equally. That’s a long way from Hammurabi— and in truth, it’s a long way from the slaveholding Thomas Jefferson. In the 1970s, Chinese President Zhou Enlai was asked what the affects of the French Revolution had been. And he said, “It’s too soon to say.” And in a way, it still is. The French Revolution asked new questions about the nature of people’s rights and the derivation of those rights. And we’re still answering those questions and sorting through how our answers should shape society today. —must government be of the people to be for the people? Do our rights derive from nature or from God or from neither? And what are those rights? As William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Thanks for watching. I’ll see you next week. Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller, our script supervisor is Danica Johnson, the show is written by my high school history teacher Raoul Meyer and myself, our graphics team is Thought Bubble, [If you <3 our graphics, Blame Canada!] and we are ably interned by Meredith Danko. [dba: The Interness or MTVCS] Last week’s phrase of the week was "Giant Tea Bag" [seriously, it totally was] If you want to suggest future phrases of the week, or guess at this week's you can do so in comments, where you can also ask questions about today’s video that will be answered by our team of historians. Thanks for watching Crash Course, and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget, Metal Ball, I Can Hear You. [slides out like an ace photobomber] [music outro] [music outro]

Background

After the failure of the Paris Commune of 1871, French socialism was severely weakened. Its leaders died or were exiled. During the 1879 Marseille Congress, workers' associations created the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF). Three years later, Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue (the son-in-law of Karl Marx) left the federation which they considered too moderate and founded the French Workers' Party (POF). The FTSF led by Paul Brousse was defined as possibilist because it advocated gradual reforms whereas the POF promoted Marxism. At the same time, Édouard Vaillant and the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui founded the Central Revolutionary Committee (CRC) which represented the French revolutionary tradition.

In the 1880s, the FTSF knew their first electoral success, winning control of some municipalities. Jean Allemane and some FTSF members criticised the focus on electoral goals. In 1890, they created the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (POSR). Their main objective was to win power through the tactic of the general strike. Besides these groups, some politicians declared themselves as independent socialists outside of the political parties. They tended to have moderate opinions.

In the 1890s, the Dreyfus affair caused debate in the socialist movement. For Jules Guesde, socialists should not intervene in an internal conflict of the bourgeoisie. In Jean Jaurès's opinion, the socialist movement was a part of the republican movement and needed to take part in the struggle in order to defend republican values. In 1899, another debate polarised the socialist groups regarding the participation of Alexandre Millerand in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet which included the Marquis de Gallifet, best known for having directed the bloody repression during the Paris Commune. Furthermore, the participation in a bourgeois government sparked a controversy pitting Jules Guesde against Jean Jaurès. In 1902, Guesde and Vaillant founded the Socialist Party of France while Jaurès, Allemane and the possibilists formed the French Socialist Party. During the 1905 Globe Congress, the two groups merged into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) under pressure from the Second International.

History

Foundation and early years

The new SFIO party was hemmed between the middle-class liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade unions. The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) proclaimed its independence from political parties at this time and the non-distinction between political and industrial aims. In addition, some CGT members refused to join the SFIO because they considered it extremist. They created the Republican-Socialist Party (PRS).

In contrast to other European socialist parties, the SFIO was a decentralised organization. Its national and executive institutions were weakened by the strong autonomy of its members and local levels of the party. Consequently, the function of secretary general, held by Louis Dubreuilh until 1918, was essentially administrative and the real political leader was Jean Jaurès, president of the parliamentary group and director of L'Humanité, the party's newspaper,

Unlike the PRS, SFIO members did not participate in Left Bloc governments, although they supported a part of its policy, notably the laïcité, based on the 1905 Act of separation between church and state. However, they criticized the ferocious repression of strikes by Radical prime minister Georges Clemenceau after 1906, following the creation of a Minister of Labour, a post held by PRS leader René Viviani.

During the July 1914 international crisis, the party was ideologically torn between its membership in the Socialist International and the wave of patriotism within France. The assassination of Jaurès on 31 July 1914 was a setback for the pacifist wing of the party and contributed to the massive increase in support for the wartime government of national unity. Participation in World War I caused divisions within the party which were accentuated after 1917. Furthermore, internal disagreements appeared about the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

In 1919, the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections by the National Bloc coalition which played on the middle-classes' fear of Bolshevism (posters with a Bolshevik with a knife between his teeth were used to discredit the socialist movement). The National Bloc won 70% of the seats, forming what became known as the Chambre bleue horizon (Blue Horizon Chamber).

Communist split and the Popular Front

During the Tours Congress on 25 December 1920, a majority of SFIO members voted to join the Communist International, also known as the Comintern and the Third International, created by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution. Led by Boris Souvarine and Ludovic-Oscar Frossard, they created the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC). Another smaller group also favoured membership in the Comintern, but not all 21 conditions. The minority led by Léon Blum and the majority of the Socialists' elected members decided in Blum's words to "keep the old house" and remain within the Second International. Marcel Sembat, Léon Blum and Albert Thomas refused to align themselves with Moscow. Paul Faure became secretary general of the SFIO, but its most influential figure was Blum, leader of the parliamentary group and director of a new party paper Le Populaire. L'Humanité, the previous party newspaper, was controlled by the founders of the SFIC. However, Frossard later resigned from the SFIC and rejoined the SFIO in January 1923. One year after the Tours Congress, the CGT trade union made the same split. Those who became Communists created the Confédération générale du travail unitaire (United General Confederation of Labour; CGTU) which fused again with the CGT in 1936 during the Popular Front government. Léon Jouhaux was the CGT's main leader until 1947 and the new split leading to the creation of the reformist union confederation Workers' Force (CGT-FO).

In both 1924 and 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in the Cartel des Gauches coalition. They supported the government led by Radical Édouard Herriot (1924–1926 and 1932), but they did not participate. The first Cartel saw the right-wing terrorised and capital flight destabilised the government while the divided Radicals did not all support their Socialist allies. The monetary crisis, also due to the refusal of Germany to pay the World War I reparations, caused parliamentary instability. Édouard Herriot, Paul Painlevé and Aristide Briand succeeded each other as prime minister until 1926, when the French right came back to power with Raymond Poincaré. The newly elected Communist deputies also opposed the first Cartel, refusing to support bourgeois governments. The second Cartel acceded to power in 1932, but this time the SFIO only gave their support without the participation of the Radicals which allied themselves with right-wing radicals. After years of internal feuds, the reformist wing of the party led by Marcel Déat and Pierre Renaudel split from the SFIO in November 1933 to form a neosocialist movement and merged with the PRS to form the Socialist Republican Union (USR). The Cartel was again the victim of parliamentary instability while various scandals led to the 6 February 1934 riots organised by far-right leagues. The Radical Édouard Daladier resigned on the next day, handing out the power to conservative Gaston Doumergue. It was the first time during the French Third Republic that a government had to resign because of street pressure.

Following 6 February 1934 crisis, which the whole of the socialist movement saw as a fascist conspiracy to overthrow the Republic, a goal pursued by the royalist Action Française and other far-right leagues, anti-fascist organisations were created. The Comintern abandoned its social-fascism directive of social democracy in favor of united front directives. The French Communist Party (PCF) got closer to the SFIO, the USR and the Radical Party to form the coalition that would win the 1936 French legislative election and bring about the Popular Front. In June 1934, Leon Trotsky proposed the French Turn into the SFIO, the origin of the strategy of entrism. The Trotskyist leaders of the Communist League (the French section of the International Left Opposition) were divided over the issue of entering the SFIO. Raymond Molinier was the most supportive of Trotsky's proposal while Pierre Naville was opposed to it and Pierre Frank remained ambivalent. The League finally voted to dissolve into the SFIO in August 1934, where they formed the Bolshevik-Leninist Group (Groupe Bolchevik-Leniniste, GBL). At the Mulhouse party congress of June 1935, the Trotskyists led a campaign to prevent the united front from expanding into a popular front which would include the liberal Radical Party.

The Popular Front strategy was adopted in the 1936 French legislative election and the coalition gained a majority, with SFIO obtaining for the first time more votes and seats than the Radical Party. Léon Blum became France's first Socialist prime minister in 1936 while the PCF supported without participation his government. A general strike applauded the socialists' victory while Marceau Pivert cried "Tout est possible!"^{[This quote needs a citation]} ("Everything is possible!"), but Pivert would later split and create the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (PSOP), with historian Daniel Guérin also being a member of the latter. Trotsky advised the GBL to break with the SFIO, leading to a confused departure by the Trotskyists from the SFIO in early 1936, which drew only about six hundred people from the party. The Matignon Accords (1936) set up collective bargaining, and removed all obstacles to union organisation. The terms included a blanket 7–12% wage increase and allowed for paid vacation (two weeks) and a 40-hour work week. The eight-hour day had been established following the war of 1914–1918 of attrition and its mobilisation of industrial capacities.

Within a year, Blum's government collapsed over economic policy (as during the Cartel des gauches, when capital flight was an issue, giving rise to the so-called "myth of the 200 families") in the context of the Great Depression and also over the issue of the Spanish Civil War. The demoralised left fell apart and was unable to resist the collapse of the Third Republic after the fall of France in the military defeat of 1940 during World War II.

World War II

A number of SFIO members were part of the Vichy 80 who refused to vote extraordinary powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain in July 1940, following which the latter proclaimed the Révolution nationale reactionary program and the establishment of the Vichy regime. Although some engaged in collaborationism, an important part also took part in the Resistance and they eventually went on to be part of the National Council of the Resistance. Pierre Fourcaud created with Félix Gouin the Brutus Network in which Gaston Defferre, later mayor of Marseilles for years, participated along with Daniel Mayer. In 1942–1943, Pétain's regime judged the French Third Republic by organising a public trial, the Riom Trial, of personalities accused of having caused the country's defeat in the Battle of France. They included Léon Blum, the Radical Édouard Daladier and the conservatives Paul Reynaud and Georges Mandel, among others.

At the same time, Marcel Déat and some neosocialists who had split from the SFIO in 1933, participated to the Vichy regime and supported Pétain's policy of collaboration. Paul Faure, secretary general of the SFIO from 1920 to 1940, approved of this policy too. He was excluded from the party when it was reconstituted in 1944. In total, 14 of the 17 SFIO ministers who had been in government before the war were expelled for collaboration.

Fourth Republic

After the liberation of France in 1944, the PCF became the largest left-wing party and the project to create a labour-based political party rallying the non-Communist Resistance failed in part due to the disagreements opposing notably the Socialists and the Christian Democrats about laïcité and the conflict with Charles de Gaulle about the new organisation of the institutions (parliamentary system or presidential government). The SFIO re-emerged and participated in the three-parties alliance with the PCF and the Christian-democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP). This coalition led the social policy inspired by National Council of Resistance's programme, installing the main elements of the French welfare state, nationalising banks and some industrial companies. While serving in government during the Forties, the SFIO was partly responsible for setting up the welfare state institutions of the Liberation period and helping to bring about France's economic recovery.^[9] In May 1946, the Socialist-led government of Félix Gouin passed a law that generalised social security, making it obligatory for the whole population.^[10] A number of progressive reforms were also introduced during Paul Ramadier's tenure as prime minister in 1947, including the extension of social security to government workers^[11] the introduction of a national minimum wage^[12]^[13] and the granting from April 1947 onwards of allowances to all aged persons in need.^[14]

Various measures were also introduced during the SFIO's time in office to improve health and safety in the workplace. An Order of July 1947 prescribed the installation of showers for the use of staff "employed on dirty or unhealthy work" and a decree of August 1947 indicated the special precautions to be taken "to protect workers spraying paint or varnish". An Order of 10 September 1947 laid down the terms in which warnings must be given "of the dangers of benzene poisoning" while a circular of October 1947 indicated "how such poisoning can be prevented".^[15] In addition, a Decree of August 1947 instituted the original measures on health and safety committees.^[16]

During the years of the French Fourth Republic, the SFIO was also active in pressing for changes in areas such as education and agriculture. Through the efforts of the SFIO, a comprehensive Farm Law was passed in 1946 which provided that sharecroppers had the right to renew their options at the expiration of their leaseholds and that the owner could repossess the land only if he or his children worked it. In addition, sharecroppers could acquire ownership at low interest rates while those who were forced to leave the land obtained compensation for the improvements that they made on the land. The sharecroppers also had the right to join a marketing cooperative, while their conflicts with owners were to be resolved at arbitration tribunals to which both sides elected an equal number of representatives.^[17]

In the early years of the French Fourth Republic, the SFIO played an instrumental role in securing appropriations for 1,000 additional state elementary school teachers and in bringing in bills to extend the national laic school system to kindergarten and nursery school levels.^[17] During the spring of 1946, the SFIO reluctantly supported the constitutional plans of the PCF. They were rejected by a referendum. The party supported the second proposal prepared with the PCF and the MRP which was approved in an October 1946 referendum. However, the coalition split in May 1947. Because of the Cold War, the Communist ministers were excluded from the cabinet led by Socialist Paul Ramadier. Anti-communism prevented the French left from forming a united front. The Communists had taken control of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union. This was relatively weakened by the 1948 creation of a social-democratic trade union Workers' Force (FO) which was supported by the American Central Intelligence Agency. This split was led by former CGT secretary general Léon Jouhaux, who was granted the Nobel Peace Prize three years later. The teachers' union (Federation for National Education, FEN) chose to gain autonomy towards the two confederations in order to conserve its unity, but SFIO syndicalists took the control of the FEN which became the main training ground of the SFIO party.

A Third Force coalition was constituted by centre-right and centre-left parties, including the SFIO, in order to block the opposition of the Communists on the one hand, and of the Gaullists on the other. Besides, in spite of Léon Blum's support, the party leader Daniel Mayer was defeated in aid of Guy Mollet. If the new secretary general was supported by the left wing of the party, he was very hostile to any form of alliance with the PCF. He said that "the Communist Party is not on the Left but in the East". At the beginning of the 1950s, the disagreements with its governmental partners about denominational schools and the colonial problem explained a more critical attitude of the SFIO membership. In 1954, the party was deeply divided about the European Defense Community. Against the instructions of the party lead, the half of the parliamentary group voted against the project and contributed to its failure.

Progressively, the Algerian War of Independence became the major issue of the political debate. During the 1956 French legislative election campaign, the party took part in the Republican Front, a centre-left coalition led by Radical Pierre Mendès France, who advocated a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Guy Mollet took the lead of the cabinet, but he led a very repressive policy. After the May 1958 crisis, he supported the return of Charles de Gaulle and the establishment of the French Fifth Republic. Moreover, the SFIO was divided about the repressive policy of Guy Mollet in Algeria and his support to De Gaulle's return. If the party returned in opposition in 1959, it could not prevent the constitution of another Unified Socialist Party (PSU) in 1960, joined the next year by Pierre Mendès France, who was trying to anchor the Radical Party amongst the left-wing movement and opposed the colonial wars.

Decline

The SFIO received its lowest vote in the 1960s. It was discredited by the contradictory policies of its leaders during the Fourth Republic. Youth and the intellectual circles preferred the PSU and workers the PCF. The French Fifth Republic's constitution had been tailored by Charles de Gaulle to satisfy his needs and his Gaullism managed to gather enough people from the left and the right to govern without the other parties' help.

Furthermore, the SFIO hesitated between allying with the non-Gaullist centre-right (as advocated by Gaston Defferre) and reconciliation with the Communists. Mollet refused to choose. The SFIO supported François Mitterrand to the 1965 French presidential election even if he was not a member of the party. The SFIO and the Radicals then created the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS), a centre-left coalition led by Mitterrand. It split after the May 68 events and the electoral disaster of June 1968. Defferre was the SFIO candidate in the 1969 French presidential election. He was eliminated in the first round, with only 5% of votes. One month later at the Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress, the SFIO was refounded as the modern-day Socialist Party. Mollet passed on the leadership to Alain Savary.

African splits

The SFIO suffered a split in Senegal in 1934 as Lamine Guèye broke away and formed the Senegalese Socialist Party (PSS). As the Senegalese Popular Front committee as formed, the SFIO and the PSS branch cooperated. In 1937, a joint list of both the SFIO and the PSS won the municipal elections in Saint-Louis. Maître Vidal became mayor of the town. The congress of the PSS held 4–5 June 1938 decided to reunify with the SFIO. Following that decision, the 11–12 June 1938 congress of the new federation of SFIO was held in Thiès.^[18]

In 1948, Léopold Sédar Senghor broke away from the Senegalese federation of SFIO and formed the Senegalese Democratic Bloc (BDS). During the 1951 French legislative election campaign, violence broke out between BDS and SFIO activists. In the end, the BDS won both seats allocated to Senegal.^[18]

In 1956, another SFIO splinter group appeared in Senegal, the Socialist Movement of the Senegalese Union.^[19]

In 1957, the history of the SFIO in West Africa came to an end. The federations of SFIO in Cameroon, Chad, Moyen-Congo, Sudan, Gabon, Guinea, Niger, Oubangui-Chari and Senegal all met in Conakry from 11 January to 13 January 1957. At that meeting it was decided that the African federations would break with their French parent organisation and form the African Socialist Movement (MSA), an independent pan-African party. The Senegalese section of MSA was the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS) and it was led by Lamine Guèye. The first meeting of the leading committee of MSA met in Dakar from 9 February to 10 February 1957 the same year. Two SFIO delegates attended the session.^[18]

General secretaries

Louis Dubreuilh (1905−1918)
Ludovic-Oscar Frossard (1918−1920)
Paul Faure (1920−1940)
Daniel Mayer (1943−1946)
Guy Mollet (1946−1969)

Election results

Presidential elections

Year	Candidate	1st round			2nd round
Presidency of the French Republic
Year	Candidate	Votes	%	Rank	Votes	%	Rank
1913	Édouard Vaillant	63	7.27	3rd	69	8.03	3rd
1920 (September)	Gustave Delory	69	8.78	2nd	—	—	—
1932	Paul Faure	114	14.67	2nd	—	—	—
1939	Albert Bedouce	151	16.70	2nd	—	—	—
1947	Vincent Auriol	452	51.19	1st	—	—	—
1953	Marcel-Edmond Naegelen	160	17.24	1st	329	37.77	2nd
1969	Gaston Defferre	1 133 222	5.01	4th	—	—	—

Legislative elections

Chamber of Deputies

Year	No. of votes	% of vote	No. of seats	Change
Chamber of Deputies
1906	877,221	9.95	54 / 585	—
1910	1,110,561	13.15	75 / 595	21
1914	1,413,044	16.76	103 / 595	27
1919	1,728,663	21.22	67 / 613	34
1924	1,814,000	20.10	104 / 581	36
1928	1,708,972	18.05	100 / 604	4
1932	1,964,384	20.51	132 / 607	32
1936	1,955,306	19.86	149 / 610	17

National Assembly

Year	No. of votes	% of vote	No. of seats	Change
National Assembly
1945	4,561,411	23.8	134 / 522
1946 (June)	4,187,747	21.1	128 / 586	6
1946 (November)	3,433,901	17.9	102 / 627	26
1951	2,894,001	15.4	107 / 625	5
1956	3,247,431	15.3	95 / 595	12
Year	No. of 1st round votes	% of 1st round vote	No. of seats	Change
1958	3,167,354	15.5	40 / 576	55
1962	2,298,729	12.5	65 / 491	18
1967	4,224,110 (in the FGDS)	19.0	114 / 491	—
1968	3,660,250 (in the FGDS)	16.5	57 / 487	57

Footnotes

^ Friedman, Gerald (1990). "Capitalism, Republicanism, Socialism, and the State: France, 1871-1914". Social Science History. 14 (2): 151–174. doi:10.2307/1171436. JSTOR 1171436.
^ Dumons, Bruno (2006). "Parachutés et " hommes du cru ": Les réseaux des parlementaires socialistes dans la Saône- et-Loire de l'entre-deux-guerres". Politix. 76 (4): 121. doi:10.3917/pox.076.0121.
^ Fuchs, Günther; Scholze, Scholze; Zimmermann, Detlev (2004). Frankreichs Dritte Republik in neun Porträts : Leon Gambetta, Jules Ferry, Jean Jaurès, Georges Clemenceau, Aristide Briand, Léon Blum, Edouard Daladier, Philippe Pétain, Charles de Gaulle. Leipziger Universitätsverlag. p. 148. ISBN 9783937209876.
^ Lieber, Nancy (1977). "Ideology and Tactics of the French Socialist Party". Government and Opposition. 12 (4): 455–473. doi:10.1111/j.1477-7053.1977.tb00663.x. ISSN 0017-257X. JSTOR 44482172. S2CID 144702684.
^ Priestland, David (2009). The red flag : a history of communism. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 9780802189790.
^ Roberts, Sophie B. (2017). Citizenship and Antisemitism in French Colonial Algeria, 1870-1962. Cambridge, MA. p. 207. ISBN 9781107188150.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Slavin, David (1991). "The French Left and the Rif War, 1924-25: Racism and the Limits of Internationalism". Journal of Contemporary History. 26 (1): 5–32. doi:10.1177/002200949102600101. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 260628. S2CID 162339547.
^ Kowalski, Werner (1985). Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923–1940. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften (in German).
^ Hanley, D. L.; Kerr, A. P.; Waites, N. H. (1984). Contemporary France: Politics and Society Since 1945.
^ Van der Eyden, T.; Van Der Eyden, A. P. J. (2003). Public Management of Society: Rediscovering French Institutional Engineering in the European Context. IOS Press. p. 224. ISBN 9781586032913. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
^ Paul, Susanne. "Historique de la Securite Sociale francaise". Global Action on Aging. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
^ Steinhouse, A. (2001). Workers' Participation in Post-liberation France. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739102831. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
^ Price, R. (1993). A Concise History of France. Cambridge University Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780521368094. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
^ Chambers Encyclopaedia new edition, Volume V: Edward-Franks, George Newnes Ltd. 1959, supplementary information 1961, printed and bound in England by Hazel Watson and Viney Ltd., Aylesbury and Slough.
^ "Protection of the health of workers in places of employment" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ Walters, David; Johnstone, R.; Frick, Kaj; Quinlan, Michael; Baril-Gingras, Geneviève; Thébaud-Mony, Annie (2011). Regulating Workplace Risks: A Comparative Study of Inspection Regimes in Times of Change. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9780857931658. Retrieved 4 May 2018 – via Google Books.
^ ^a ^b Codding Jr., George A.; Safran, William. Ideology and Politics: The Socialist Party of France.
^ ^a ^b ^c Zuccarelli, François (1988). La vie politique sénégalaise (1789–1940). Paris: CHEAM (in French).
^ Nzouankeu, Jacques Mariel (1984). Les partis politiques sénégalais. Dakar: Editions Clairafrique (in French).

v t e French Communist Party
General Secretary	Ludovic-Oscar Frossard (1921–1923) Louis Sellier and Albert Treint (1923–1924) Louis Sellier (1924) Pierre Semard (1924–1929) Henri Barbé, Pierre Célor, Benoît Frachon and Maurice Thorez (1929–1930) Maurice Thorez (1930–1950) Jacques Duclos (1950–1953) Maurice Thorez (1953–1964) Waldeck Rochet (1964–1969) Georges Marchais (1969–1972) Waldeck Rochet (1972) Georges Marchais (1972–1994) Robert Hue (1994–2001) Marie-George Buffet (2001–2010) Pierre Laurent (2010–2018) Fabien Roussel (2018–present)
Related articles	History of the French Communist Party List of French Communist Party congresses French Section of the Workers' International Tours Congress Headquarters Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France Union of Communist Students National Front (French Resistance) Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP-MOI) Union of Russian Patriots French Resistance National Council of the Resistance May 1947 crises MRAP Institut Maurice Thorez Programme commun Unitary Left Marxism–Leninism Eurocommunism Cité Gagarine
Publications	L'Humanité Le Travailleur de Lot-et-Garonne Le Travailleur du Centre Ouest Le Travailleur du Loiret L'Enchaîné du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais Front rouge La Bretagne ouvrière, paysanne et maritime La Voix de l'Est Le Prolétaire normand Les Lettres Françaises Pif Gadget
Derivatives	Socialist-Communist Union Workers and Peasants Party Proletarian Unity Party French Popular Party Federation of Marxist-Leninist Circles in France / Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of France Workers' Communist Party of France Convention for a Progressive Alternative Pole of Communist Revival in France Movement of Progressives
Related	Popular Front (1936–1938) French Committee of National Liberation (1940–1947) Plural Left (1997–2002) Left Front (2008–present)
Parliamentary groups	National Assembly Senate

v t e French Section of the Workers' International
General Secretary	Louis Dubreuilh (1905−1918) Ludovic-Oscar Frossard (1918−1920) Paul Faure (1920−1940) Vacant (1940−1943) Daniel Mayer (1943−1946) Guy Mollet (1946−1969)
Related articles	Paris Commune French Socialist Party (Federation of the Socialist Workers of France and Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party) Socialist Party of France (French Workers' Party and Socialist Revolutionary Party) Globe Congress Second International L'Humanité Le Populaire Tours Congress French Turn (Trotskyism) Matignon Agreements The Vichy 80 French Resistance (Brutus Network) National Council of Resistance Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress Revolutionary socialism Blanquism Marxism Possibilism Democratic socialism Neosocialism
Derivatives	French Communist Party Socialist Party of France – Jean Jaurès Union / Socialist Republican Union / National Popular Rally Internationalist Workers Party Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party Democratic Socialist Party Union of the Socialist Left / Unified Socialist Party / Union of Clubs for the Renewal of the Left / Union of Socialist Groups and Clubs Socialist Party
Alliances	Lefts Cartel (1924–1934) Popular Front (1936–1938) Tripartisme (1944–1947) Third Force (1947–1958) Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (1965–1968)

v t e French Socialist Party
First Secretaries	Alain Savary (1969–1971) François Mitterrand (1971–1981) Lionel Jospin (1981–1988) Pierre Mauroy (1988–1992) Laurent Fabius (1992–1993) Michel Rocard (1993–1994) Henri Emmanuelli (1994–1995) Lionel Jospin (1995–1997) François Hollande (1997–2008) Martine Aubry (2008–2012) Harlem Désir (2012–2014) Jean-Christophe Cambadélis (2014–2017) Rachid Temal [fr] (ad interim) Olivier Faure (2018–present)
Prime Ministers	Pierre Mauroy (1981–1984) Laurent Fabius (1984–1986) Michel Rocard (1988–1991) Édith Cresson (1991–1992) Pierre Bérégovoy (1992–1993) Lionel Jospin (1997–2002) Jean-Marc Ayrault (2012–2014) Manuel Valls (2014–2016) Bernard Cazeneuve (2016–2017)
Presidential candidates	François Mitterrand (1974, 1981, 1988) Lionel Jospin (1995, 2002) Ségolène Royal (2007) François Hollande (2012) Benoît Hamon (2017) Anne Hidalgo (2022)
Presidential primaries	1995 2006 2011 2017 2021 [fr; es]
Related articles	French Section of the Workers' International Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance Convention of Republican Institutions Union of Clubs for the Renewal of the Left Union of Socialist Groups and Clubs
National congresses	Alfortville Congress (May 1969) Issy-les-Moulineaux Congress (July 1969) Epinay Congress (1971) Grenoble Congress (1973) Pau Congress (1975) Nantes Congress (1977) Metz Congress (1979) Créteil Congress (January 1981) Valence Congress (October 1981) Bourg-en-Bresse Congress (1983) Toulouse Congress (1985) Lille Congress (1987) Rennes Congress (1990) Grande Arche Congress (1991) Bordeaux Congress (1992) Bourget Congress (1993) Liévin Congress (1994) Brest Congress (1997) Second Grenoble Congress (2000) Dijon Congress (2003) Le Mans Congress (2005) Reims Congress (2008) Second Toulouse Congress (2012) Poitiers Congress [fr] (2015) Aubervilliers Congress (2018) Villeurbanne Congress [fr] (2021) Marseille Congress [fr] (2023)
Parliamentary groups	National Assembly: Socialist group, associated Senate: Socialist and Republican
Former factions	Aubryists Desires for the Future New Socialist Party Royalists Socialist Left

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